Francis Bacon was an English philosopher, scientist, author and political leader. His view over scientific knowledge was different from other scientists and philosophers. His ideas and works were influential among scholars even after his death. Some of his skeptical methodologies made him the father scientific method. According to him, the Nature could be understood only by studying it directly, objectively and not subjectively.
Bacon was one of the leading scientists in the period of transition from Renaissance era to early modern era. His approach to science was more influential than Descartes and other contemporaries.
According to him, science should not include mathematics, theories, deductions and hypotheses but should involve only the facts of observation. Galileo, one of his contemporaries viewed science in terms of general principles, mathematics and deductions. Both Bacon’s and Galileo’s approaches to science was very different.
According to Bacon, accepting a theory may involve biases in one’s observations. He even called Aristotle as a biased researcher because he applied final causes to science without understanding the facts.
Bacon discredits final causes as they lead to difficulties in science. He gave importance to his observations on nature and does not trusted rationalism and mathematics to understand science.
In one of his investigative method “Baconian Method”, he mentioned that the observation of facts should be used as a means of studying and interpreting natural phenomenon.
Bacon divided natural science into physics and metaphysics. In physics, he involved variables and particular causes and in metaphysics, efficient application of general law made.
According to him, man can understand and explain the processes in the natural science only if he acquires full insight about the hidden workings of the matter. He emphasized observation in science excluding theory, mathematics, belief and words. Hence, his approach to science was called as positivism.